Everything is going great with your business. Productivity is up. You’ve got new customers every day. Your team is amazing. It’s time to celebrate!

But what do you do when some or your team is virtual?

What happens when you have an office where a local team works, but you also have other team members dotted around the country (or world)? In today’s digital age, this is extremely commonplace. How can you, as a business owner, include your virtual assistants, virtual web developers, virtual content writers and more in your in-house celebrations?

One of the hardest things that virtual workers have to deal with is the isolation that sometimes happens when they’re working for people who have in-house teams. While it’s great to be able to work from home, virtual workers are always left out of company celebrations because they’re not there physically.

They see and hear the aftermath of festivities. Photos of an after-hours event with smiles and games. Chatter at the next meeting with inside jokes about what happened at a party.

There are a couple things you can do to ensure the whole team in included in events, meetings and celebrations.

BUY LUNCH FOR EVERYONELet’s say you have a quarterly in-office meeting. You gather in the conference room, turn on the Polycom and video connection. You buy lunch for everyone in the office. And what do your virtual workers see? They see an employer who bought lunch for the people there, but didn’t think about the whole team. And it’s very difficult to watch a group of people gathered together, enjoying a thoughtful token of appreciation, while they sit there not feeling appreciated.

It seems like such a small thing. A boxed lunch. But it’s tells your virtual worker that he wasn’t important enough to do the same for. But you can do the same!

Prior to the meeting, why not send a gift card to each virtual worker to a sub shop so that they can pick up lunch and eat together with the team. Or have something ordered and delivered to their home office. Something that makes them feel included, even if they can’t be in-office.

HAVE AN ONLINE CELEBRATIONMaybe once or twice a year you and the in-house crew go out for drinks, or mini golf, or bowling or any other after office hours event. It’s team building, right? But why aren’t you including the rest of your team? If they contribute to the business, they need to be included in the celebration.

How do you include virtual workers in an office party?

It’s simple. Have an online party. You can play video games together online. You can even create a digital scavenger hunt, grouping some virtual and some in-house people together. Cell phones and FaceTime make it easy to connect anywhere, and they can be physically and electronically hunting down locations, images, objects, etc.

When we hire virtual workers, we really need to think outside of the (office) box and remember that they are integral parts of the team that deserve the same thanks and recognition that in-house workers get. Take the time to remember and reward your whole team, not just those who can walk into a physical office.

Are you looking for out-of-the-box ideas for company events that will include your whole team? Contact me and let me put together a party your team will never forget.

What I Learned on my Summer Vacation Last week I spent a couple thousand miles in the car to travel Southward for our annual family vacation. Even in the midst of sweltering 90+ degree heat, I learned a few lessons that I thought I’d share while things were still fresh in my head.From Mammoth Cave National Park There’s a bigger picture out there – see it! A beautiful forest with deer and wild turkey romping about it is cool, but hiking 300 feet underneath those turkeys to see a room that could house my son’s elementary school (and this was only the 5th largest discovered) makes me excited about all the discoveries I’ve yet to make.

From the Grand Ole Opry Marketing and advertising have an amazing amount to do with our perception of products. Well, I know that’s a no-brainer lesson, but it truly struck home in Nashville. I don’t know about you, but when my husband and I were thinking of the Grand Ole Opry, we envisioned this large “vintage” theatre set downtown somewhere. You know – it’s Grand and it’s Ole! The truth of the matter is that the Opry is right off the highway. It’s a large, auditorium-type building. And it’s right next to a mall (right by the Dave and Buster’s entrance!). I was told the mall used to be Opryland.

From Ruby Falls, Chattanooga TN Achieving a goal can be terrifying, but you can do it. When we were planning our vacation, my son saw a brochure for Ruby Falls. It’s “America’s highest underground waterfall.” He wanted to see it, so we let him have this stop on our trip. Now, before I go any further, I have to tell you two things. First, I have an insane fear of heights. Second, I have a terrible fear of being trapped underground with nowhere to go. Ruby Falls is at the base of a small mountain. You have to drive up a small, winding road to get to it. By the time we parked I was already at a solid 9 out of 10 for stress level. So, you go in, and pay an extremely overpriced fee to go see the falls. The perception is that you walk in to the cave and see the falls. The reality is that you have to get into a small elevator with glass doors and go down 260 feet, all the while thinking “what happens if the elevator breaks?” and “I don’t see any extra elevator or emergency stairs.” By the time I exited the elevator I was a solid 10 for 10. If I had a choice, I would have stayed in the car. But, I had to do this for my son. And perhaps for me, too, to show myself I could do it. (And now I think if I can do that, I can do just about anything!).

From Graceland Honestly, I’m not sure what the takeaway is from Graceland. That the 70s really were a completely gaudy time in home décor? That you can have everything and still lose it all by making bad choices? Or maybe that I must really love my husband to agree to go there in the first place. :)

It’s that time of year again. We buy a new jogging outfit, upload plenty of uplifting tunes to our mp3 players, buy a few gallons of skim milk, and pledge a lifetime of fitness. But what about pledging some business fitness as well? Sure, I’ll be working harder this year to make friends with my treadmill, but I’m really in the mood to bulk up my business muscle. Therefore, I’m posting my business resolutions for 2013. (Because everyone tells me it makes you more accountable if you let people know your resolutions!) 2013 Your Gal Friday Business Resolutions Acquire a new workspace Working from home can make you lax. It’s so easy to be mobile and eventually you find yourself curled up on the couch rather than sitting at a desk or table with your laptop. I’ve been having shoulder issues, so sitting upright at the right spot seems to be the answer. I jumped ahead and filled this resolution. Here’s my new focus point where you’ll find me working throughout the day. (Thanks Craigslist!)

Make a Schedule

Businesses online always have high hopes for blogging more, tweeting more and just generally “getting the word out” more. I’m now on a schedule. We’ll, let’s say I have a schedule, and I’ve followed it for the past four days.

Reach out More

How many networking events did you go to last year? How much advertising did you buy? How much time did you spend volunteering under the name of your business? It’s time to get out there and meet people, shake hands, say hello, and see what’s going on in the world away from my new desk!

Read Emails

Don’t worry – I’m always reading your emails. I’m talking about those that I sign up for. Newsletters, business tips, etc. Why do I sign up for them if I’m not going to read them? I’m making it a point to read, to learn and maybe even comment!

Have Fun

Business can’t be so serious all the time. And we can’t be all business all the time either. Remember to take a step back, go out to eat, meet friends and play games.

I turned 42 recently (no, I'm not at all ashamed to admit my age), and in my mailbox was a link to a Harvard Business Review article “You Are Not a Failure.” http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2012/06/you_are_not_a_failure.html The teaser in the email was “There’s still hope for success after 35.” I was kind of miffed by that. It makes it sound that when you hit 35, the chances of you having any success are slim, but you can do possibly, maybe do it. So I read the article, and what really stuck in me was this: “But late bloomers can take comfort in his finding that creativity isn't one-size-fits-all. If you haven't been invited to the White House or launched an IPO or made the cover of a national newsmagazine before age 35, there's absolutely no reason to believe you can't still accomplish those goals later in life.” What? This age thing really bothers me. Why is success measured by how quickly you can do something? And why do I hear “oh, it’s okay that you’re not a billionaire yet. You can still do it!” (with a sympathetic pat on the beginning-to-grey head)? Now, not only do you have to be young to be deemed successful, you must also be completely saturated in cash. (Too bad for people like Grandma Moses. How unsuccessful she must have felt!) When I graduated college, I graduated with a man who was 76 – and just receiving his first degree. That was success. When I make it a whole week eating right and exercising – that’s success! When I wake up every day and have work to do for one of my clients – that’s success. Maybe I’m too old now to understand the measure of success. And I’m perfectly okay with that.